Resource Stories: Noel McKenzie, Represented Foundation

Nearly 70% of nonprofit leaders in New York City are white. In 2017, Noel McKenzie launched Represented Foundation in Brooklyn, NY, to support the development of Black and Brown social entrepreneurs to make the best world possible.

In this interview, Noel discusses the need for diverse leaders in the social impact space, the particular contributions of Black and Brown voices, and the unique challenges his organization faces.

Read the Q&A below to learn about Noel’s journey.

I always like to name and uplift the Black women in my family who used service as a means to create opportunity. My grandma on my mom's side came from Jamaica and got a job working as a nurse at a convent, taking care of nuns. She used the visa to bring her daughters and sons over, and then my mom worked that same job for thirty years. She used that as a means to give her kids – myself and my sister – a private school education so that we could have more opportunities.

So, I saw my family working service jobs, creating more wealth and opportunity through service, and I knew that I wanted to work in the nonprofit sector. 

When I was younger, I had an opportunity to intern for a major NGO (Non-Governmental Organizations are non-US based nonprofits) and had an experience I’ll never forget. I traveled to South Africa to help them run a reintegration program. One day the board chair came to visit, and she was very intentional about shaking everyone's hand, acknowledging everyone, thanking every single person in the room for their support: interns, staff, volunteers. That is, everyone except for me. I was the only person she didn’t acknowledge. I was also the only person of color in this leadership room at an NGO serving 100% people of color.

So that stuck in my head. And back in the U.S., I saw that dynamic repeat itself. When I was studying for my master's degree in Nonprofit Management at The New School I was still one of only a few people of color in the room. We would hear some phrases and opinions that were so disconnected from the people and the traditions of community work that people of color naturally do. But then I would see the same people, my white counterparts, get showered with innovation prizes, grants, and funding; and it was so often related to work that they didn't have a community or heritage tie to.

I saw an imbalance: this system that kept enforcing the idea that in this field, people of color can't be leaders and shouldn't be. That’s why we keep seeing white folk leading nonprofits serving Black and Brown communities and getting really well funded to do it.

What is the mission of Represented Foundation?

Our mission is to support the development of Black and Brown social impact entrepreneurs, to make the best world possible. Almost 70% of nonprofit leaders in New York City are white. They are folks who most likely did really well in other fields and then crossed over into the nonprofit field.

I hate that we undervalue lived experience. By the year 2045, people of color are going to be about 50% of the population. That means 50% of Black and Brown people should be leaders in social impact spaces. I believe that if folks of color start to become leaders in these spaces, they will actually be able to solve the issues that these organizations are taking on, particularly as they pertain to communities of color. I want to see more nonprofit directors and managers who have experience working in the field, and also have decades of lived experience. That needs to happen.

How does your programming work?

We deliver capacity-building programming to social impact entrepreneurs who are either really early in their journeys or have become stagnant in their growth. We help them find the right clarity to implement their programming before introducing them to the right networks to help their company grow. One such program is our incubator called V.E.R. (Vision. Execution. Results.) that accepts cohorts of leaders. We surround them with the right instructors through ten masterclass courses, and pair them with mentors and coaches.

Graduates of our incubator have gone on to increase their bandwidth for success. They use the work done with us to gain support from prestigious circles like Google startups, Camelback Ventures, and CORO leadership. They’ve also gone on to successfully make the transition into full-time entrepreneurs, using our training to build sustainable ways to dedicate themselves to their practice – a really exciting accomplishment. 

We run another program that we call “Service Groups”, where we place teams of pro bono consultants around leaders of color to work on short-term projects together. We are the first step. We’re basically saying to folks of color, Bring your passion and your ideas to a space that was specifically created for you, get very secure, get very clear here. And then we will be at their side, pointing them in the right direction, whether that’s with another leadership development network, foundation, or other accelerator. 

I'm really inspired by the times when I get to either directly refer someone to an opportunity, or someone tells me that an opportunity came as a result of something that we created. I think about Marissa Davis, founder of Tallawah Consulting and part of our third cohort of leaders. Her mentor, Razvan Petric, Principal and Founder of Root Capital, is now on her board of advisors and she sits on his community board. The way that the community takes on its own life and can continue to be a source of growth for these entrepreneurs and their businesses. That's what I'm most proud of.

What's next?

We’ve supported 35 leaders between the trainings and the cohort programming. Some of them came to us with a company already in mind. Of those who didn’t, three new nonprofits were established. Six new social enterprises were established, and new community-based services were created for 13,500 people. Forty-five new jobs in four communities of color were created. And just over 400 pro-bono consulting hours from mentors who were working with entrepreneurs of color.

Our next goal is to expand our services. We plan to transition from a one-tier track, where entrepreneurs could only join our six-month incubator, to four, allowing leaders to self-select which learning format and timing works best for them. We actually want to support 225 leaders in this next wave. And we're estimating those 225 leaders will bring new community-based services to 95,000 people.

What's the biggest hurdle your organization has encountered?

The biggest hurdle is that we are an organization led by people of color. We raise money from foundations, andless than nine percent of foundations are run by people of color. So, the same beast that we have helped other entrepreneurs of color fight against and create go-round strategies for – we’re fighting that same beast. We need those same things, those same resources and strategies.

I'm really excited to see what happens now that we've been able to prove ourselves and start securing and aligning with the right partners who can help us remove barriers for other folks. We want to work with the right partners who can start removing those barriers for us.

I will never forget Tyisha Jackson, the founder of a nonprofit, Incredible Credible Messengers, an organization that supports formerly incarcerated citizens. She said to me, “Noel, I don't know if you know how much it mattered to see a young Black man leading this work in an office on Madison Ave. We would come to get these lessons because it made us feel like we could be that, that there is space for us to do this work as well.” That's when I knew that this is where I needed to stay.